Did “Monster Quest” Prove Bigfoot?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on November 11th, 2007
Well, how could a television program “prove” the existence of a cryptid, anyway?
Unlike some, I am not surprised that the History Channel and the producers of Monster Quest’s “Sasquatch Attack” did not leak the fact that Sasquatch DNA may have been collected. I do not feel upset with Jeff Meldrum because he didn’t rush in front of a microphone soon after the documentary filming to announce the rock-throwing and that a Sasquatch had stepped on a “nail trap.” Ouch!
Perhaps some patience is needed in this field. Why are people disturbed that Meldrum honored the non-disclosure clause in his appearance release, and that he was more interested in getting the hair and DNA test results first? It is interesting to watch such a reaction from some quarters, as opposed to a more extended debate on “What could these results mean?”
Really, you know, we have been here before. Meldrum and the Hajicek crew say they recovered hair, blood, and tissue samples of a Sasquatch. The skeptical DNA specialist found there was nothing there to study. Another scientist claimed to have removed the galvanized nails’ contamination and found the hair was “almost human.” Don’t you remember the different reactions to the Skookum cast hair samples? The Pangboche Yeti hand tissue samples came back “near human, but not human,” in other words, “almost human” in 1991.
There are three layers of keratin in hair: the medulla, the cortex and the cuticle. Missing in this new Monster Quest sample is the medulla (the spongy core), which is present in human hair. But what does this mean? The program never fully explains the possibilities for why this occurred or was found.
The Monster Quest samples collected were also tested for DNA and again that “almost human” finding came back, noting it was like a human sample, with the exception of one base pair difference with humans. The program noted this sample seemed to be from a species that was closer to humans than chimpanzees’ DNA indicated those African apes are.
The rock-throwing incidents were the ones the producers used to get viewers’ interest excited, but the Sasquatch stepping on a nail trap was left out of the pre-screening teasers. I have no idea why that was done, other than idle speculation that the complex nature of the assumed cruelty to the Bigfoot and the DNA testing do not translate well to a trailer.
As to the rock-throwing, for how the people there reacted, it has raised questions in some minds. I have people contacting me with this kind of email: “Why were these guys ‘cowering in the cabin,’ as they put it. If I were at a location looking for evidence of Sasquatch, and suddenly rocks start banging off the cabin, I’m going to go find out who/what is throwing rocks.”
Were they scared? Did they think they were dealing with poltergeist activity or a possible new species of primate? Why stay inside, indeed? For filmmaking purposes, fear, or so they could claim they saw one if a Bigfoot came to peek in a window? This primal human behavior is difficult to understand in terms of the expressed purpose of the mission there.
Certainly, the program covertly hints at pondering on this: What might have happened if someone had been attacked physically by a Sasquatch? Or what would have transpired if a member of the crew had shoot or stumbled across a dead Sasquatch, during this documentary production?
Meanwhile, the tabloid The New York Post is about the only media outlet that has picked up on what might have seemed to be, in another era, very nearly a major finding. I think The New York Times, the Times of London, the International Herald of Paris, and The Washington Post are all waiting for the body to declare any earth-shaking coelacanth-like discoveries, re: Sasquatch.
Meanwhile, take a moment. Do ask yourself the big one, what happens when the first Bigfoot body is found? I wonder what Hajicek’s and Meldrum’s backup plans were for such an event?
The History Channel may have discovered the missing link.
In its new show “MonsterQuest,” an adventurous group braved the wilderness to see if “Big Foot” actually lives in Ontario, Canada.
Scientists Kurt Nelson and Jeff Meldrum spent five days with a video and audio crew at a cabin in the utterly remote Snelgrove Lake, pulling DNA samples from the trap and exploring the forest.
The show has caused a stir among enthusiasts because it has gotten so close to proving the Sasquatch monster may, in fact, exist.
The show made “contact” with the thing on its last night of filming.
“A stone was thrown at about 2 a.m.,” executive producer Doug Hajibeck [sic ~ should be Hajicek] told The Post. “That stone hit like a bullet. It was thrown with amazing accuracy.”
The crew threw a stone back and, in a matter of minutes, a second stone was launched at them.
“I was really scared, and I felt the adrenaline,” said Hajibeck. “When we threw that rock into the woods and then it got sent back, my heart raced.”
Blood, tissue and hair discovered later on a bear trap outside the cabin was tested.
The hair did not match any known North American bear or animal and tests showed an uncanny similarity to human DNA with one exception: the irregular DNA matched that of a primate.
“It is a show that presents and analyzes the evidence,” said executive producer Mike Stiller. “But, ultimately, it’s up the viewers.” ~ Melissa Jane Kronefeld, New York Post.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Wow, maybe they are up to something. Sounds great… I would LOVE to see this documentary but unfortunately I can’t down here in Germany.
If those DNA samples are as conclusive as they are discribed, the big guy may be more human like than we’ve thought. creepy.
Although Meldrum is obviously a skilled research scientist, I do not recollect him listing any face to face time with any alleged Sasquatch, on his resume. Thus, the inexperience in what to do, when the occasion arose. The biologist, apparently has no expertise with Sasaquatch whatsoever, so he has an excuse. And I don’t expect the film crew to be experienced in making seat of the pants Sasquatch decisions, either. My experience with those more field experienced than Meldrum, being the BFRO, is that they too would have not put themselves into potentially harms way, considering that rocks were tossed on a roof, instead of say, pinecones.
Obviously, the Sasquatch was initiating contact with what he thought was another intelligent lifeform on the planet. Lacking a cellphone and/or command of the tongue that they spoke, he resorted to what he thought was the only available sound making device, that the crowd could hear above their constant chatter. He most likely ruled out pine cones, because pine cones fall out of the sky all the time, and don’t make much noise. But rocks do make noise. But rocks only make a thud on the ground. Since noone would be paying attention if one hit the ground out of nowhere, all that would happen is someone would say, “what’s that?” Anticipating all this, the Sasquatch then chose to utilize that loud clanging roof (a tool), and his carefully selected rock projectile (another tool), in hopes of “making contact”. Little did the Sasquatch realize, that those seemingly intelligent but hairless lifeforms, would only retreat indoors and completely misinterpret the importance of the Sasquatch’s gesture.
Is there any chance I could find this documentary online?
There needs to be more Cryptozoology shows on Sky tv
Animal-X is the last one I ever saw broadcast and that was what? 4 years ago?
Not that TV show can’t contribute something worthwhile to scientific inquiry, I am very skeptical of trusting TV documentaries for the very reason that a TV show’s primary goal, regardless of content, is to attract viewers (ratings) and generate revenue for advertisers. Obviously, when dealing with something as sensational as cryptozoology and “Bigfoot,” TV shows tend to lean err on the side of sensationalism.
I guess we’ll see, but since the show is edited to entice viewers, I wouldn’t automatically put a lot of stock into anything put forward. But, we’ll see I guess.
Thanks to the Post article i was alerted to the time and was able to see the show. It was very well done and a DVD is avalable from the History channel.
The blood sample was analyzed by the NYU lab and came up zero, no DNA. Dr Nelson who was on the expedition determined that a substance on the nail prevented the DNA from being extracted. He was able to neuteralize it and performed his own DNA anaysis. The sample was that of a Human except for one factor
How they can say it was from an African type ape is beyond the pale.They would need a better sample and a further reduction of any contaminats.Now the hair was exaimaned by a specialist and he determined that it was from a Primate, but not from any known.to science.The Fishing camp by the lake where the Sasquatch incident took place was shown to be have been trashed with before and after pictures.A Bear anyone. No, because it was a hibernation period for the Black Bears.The Rock throwing is a little bizzare. In order to truly believe it I would have to see it but the fact that Dr Jeff Meldrum is involved i will give the show the benefit of any reservations that i may have.
I am extremely skeptical when it comes to the rock throwing incident. Yes the crew might have been scared, but their job was to find Sasquatch. When their big chance came to find one they expect us to believe they hid in the cabin.
Facing scary situations comes with certain jobs. When a crash victim arrives in the ER the doctor doesn’t run and hide. Even more on point, when the guys from Ghosthunters on SciFi see something ghostlike, they chase after it, not run away. I just find it very hard to believe that when faced with their big break the crew decided not to investigate.
It sounds like there are reasons for questioning the DNA report.
As to Dr. Meldrum, remember what happened to Pons and Fleischman, even though their experiments have been replicated many times (though not anywhere useful as a source of energy): Their careers were ruined because they went to the press before publication. I highly doubt that Dr. Meldrum would make that kind of mistake.
I hope they figure out how to have a DNA trap without a contaminant that would make DNA recovery impossible.
With any critter sharing a lot of DNA with humans, the results are always uncertain. For example with the Neandertal DNA results, the filter used was to throw out anything resembling human, assuming it was a contaminant, so naturally they came up with a difference (though not as much a difference as with the Mungo aboriginal fossils in Australia which are unquestionably H.s.s.)
I suspect that in the case of a Nape of one sort of another, the same kind of filtering is quite possible. Human DNA very easily gets into the mix, to separating what is, and what isn’t is tricky, and the assumptions used by the lab and the experimenters can dramatically affect the results.
At first, I was astounded that these DNA findings would not have been immediately released and published in scientific journals, but now I can see why. Since the samples were deemed inconclusive by at least one expert, that is going to raise the specter of doubt over them. People like to have their DNA tests come back as solid and indisputable. Maybe Meldrum wants to keep working towards a better, less contaminated sample to test. Perhaps he wants to make sure that the evidence is irrefutable when he finally goes all out and publishes any findings. Granted I do not know the whole story behind these DNA samples, but I still can’t believe though that these findings are being given such short shrift by the media and science in general. This is a potential breakthrough find.
I don’t know all of the details behind these findings, but right now, I am attaching a good deal of importance to the DNA and hair samples. Not only are they not immediately identifiable as any known animal, but there are other things surrounding their discovery. These samples do not exist in a vacuum. We have the rock throwing, and the the trashed fishing camp that Bob K spoke of that while by themselves would probably not be accepted as conclusive evidence, when taken together with the finding of these odd hair and tissue samples make this a very compelling case to me. So I am remaining optimistic that Meldrum could be onto something here. Maybe these DNA and hair samples will get some more recognition and be seen as something more than an oddity. Everybody wants this sort of physical evidence, so I think it is still a bit early for anyone to be writing it off. This could be a major breakthrough.
I tend to take the opposite attitude of some here with regards to the rock throwing incident. A lot of people think it is suspicious that they did not venture out to see what was throwing the rocks and instead “cowered” in the cabin. On the contrary that actually adds a bit of realism for me. In my opinion it seems indicative of an actual fearful response to a truly unknown occurrence. Maybe they just thought “Wow, there is an actual sasquatch out there throwing rocks!” and panicked. Sure their job was to go out and find sasquatch, but think about it. If this was fake, they could have put on a big show and gone out to investigate like on any other mystery animal or paranormal program where they check out bumps in the night. If it was staged, wouldn’t they want to raise the excitement by going out to see what’s going on? They could have gone out, looked, and turned up nothing and that still would have notched up the tension for viewers. Why fake a rock throwing incident and then hide inside like that? Why not play it up and do what it is they were claiming to do by investigating if this was indeed fake and they knew nothing was really out there?
So I think either it was a real incident, and they perhaps freaked out a bit. Or it was a hoax or a practical joke that was perceived as real to the crew and they were perhaps a bit frightened. They may not have even been really expecting to find any real sasquatch out there. I could go out looking for ghosts for example, but when I actually saw a real one, it would likely take me off guard. If it was a real incident, I would expect them to go and investigate, or cower in their cabin. However if it was faked, I definitely would NOT expect them to hide in the cabin. That is the impression I get.
Some points:
1) I remember some years back there was an expedition to the boondocks of China in search of The Wildman—some supposed “hair” of the “beast” was collected and DNA testing done on it—the result being that it was found to not belong to any known species of animal—at least as I remember (I may be wrong). Wouldn’t that be considered sort of “proof?” And has there been more information forthcoming on the results of the hair samples? If so, I may have missed them.
2) When I saw the nail trap I had the same feelings as Loren. But I sort of understand. One cannot “pick and choose” where one gets the proof. So if definitive proof were to be found of Sasquatch because of this, it would sort of mitigate. Although I must say—if this is also used on bears, I know a lot of people (i.e., PETA) who would be up in arms about it. I guess personally I’m not as upset as some people would be (I don’t think bears ot Sasquatch are going to die from it) but I TOTALLY understand why some people would be upset. And the nail bed WAS put in there to prevent animals from getting into the cabin, after all. And yes, I still love and respect animals.
3) Unlike captainadam_21, I am not surprised at all that Meldrum and the others stayed in the cabin. Yes, they were there to find evidence of Sasquatch but in my opinion (and experience) it is easy for people to be eager to search for something unknown and then find that when they do encounter that unknown to be paralysed with fear. It is easy for us on our comfy armchairs to judge them for not going out of the cabin but FEAR is a pretty fair overrider of whatever enthusiasm one has. Especially when the Sasquatch’s intentions are not clear. I admit I PERSONALLY would find it pretty hard not to look-indeed I’m almost certain I WOULD-but I can’t be totally sure. Ultimately, we were not there and we cannot judge what we would have done in that situation. We did not have hear those noises and have those rocks thrown at us. Most of the encounters with Sasquatches that I know of involve the witnesses being terrified.
It is almost reassuring in a way. Even supposedly dispassionate scientists and researchers are like the rest of us—scared sh**less schmucks. Why not ask Meldrum what happened?
4) One can say that they were trying to “communicate,” but it may ALSO be true that they were trying to scare the occupants out of the cabin. As the narrator HIMSELF said, the creatures apparently did not like ANYONE being in the cabin. And the rock-throwing is consistent with reports I’ve read of aggressive Sasquatch using force to scare people.
5) What I found fascinating was the diary from 1995. Some skeptics would say—“Meldrum and the others just HAPPENED to find a diary describing evidence of the creature the researchers were looking for?” Don’t get me wrong, I’m a true believer, but am willing to look at things from the other side. And if I WAS on the side, I would find that a pretty interesting “coincidence.” Almost like a horror movie. One finds the “diary” of the previous occupants of the haunted house telling the story of how they all went insane or killed each other or something.
Just my two cents. Overall, a fascinating episode and am looking forward to the results.
very informative new article about monsterquest. but even if a sasquatch body is found in forests intact it wouldnt solve the mystery it would only deepen it with more questions & opinions etc. im looking forward to future segments of monsterquest either on dvd or tv. thanks bill green 🙂
Interesting program. For once we weren’t treated to the usual coy vaguenesses and restatements of what’s been said before, with occasional bits of people walking through the woods. Intriguing and very interesting. I have to agree with MM on all points. It has potential, and I’m looking forward to a potential sequel to this episode.
…at the TBRC conference….
Dr. Meldrum spent several minutes discussing the recent DNA results aired on “Monsterquest”and implied the best is yet to come, pending a rigorous review. I’m sure he will address the concerns voiced here and elsewhere when the comprehensive results are in…JMHO
I doubt either Dr. Meldrum or Dr. Nelson “cowered” in fear, these are men of science, I suspect that was theatrics and creative editing to sensationalize the episode. I feel disparaging comments regarding the results of their research are inappropriate, the Dr.’s science will be published when its complete, not when it’s convenient, fashionable or vogue…JMHO
A word to wise…All sasquatch killing wannabes should consider ramifications and ponder the consequences of Dr. Nelson’s DNA results very carefully. I’ve queried attorneys and law enforcement folks…drag in a “voucher” specimen…and you will be leaving disgraced in cuffs, with manslaughter charges or worse as your reward…in their humble opinion.
If a bigfoot body was found the mystery will still not be sloved. What about the other bigfoot creatures? What about the Yeti, Skunk Ape, Yowie, Yeren, Almas and the Orang Pendek????
Loren’s write-up on the show is fairly accurate as well as some of the questions he asks. Some of the questions raised by the other commenters are accurate.
You should remember that even perfect DNA evidence of Bigfoot from one encounter won’t get the real attention of hard core scientists.
However, two or three such incidents would definitely garner attention especially if the samples are analyzed by more than one lab and have the same result. My best,
airforce47
I saw the program. At first I thought well here we go again but much to my suprise this one took a different turn..The samples that were collected don’t prove Sasquatch is real but the samples do prove something is out there..The samples raise more questions than provide answers. One big question is this creature that stepped on the screw board going to die from blood poisoning from the impression showen on the board his/her foot was mostly stuck on it. In the spring a group of “erperts” should fly in and look for the body or try to find the critter.
Doesn’t anybody sympathize with the creature that stepped on the trap? Can’t blame him for throwing rocks – he could have done a LOT worse!
My personal opinion is that,though the rock throwing is very interesting, especially in what it might mean iro intelligence etc. It is minor in relation to the importance and interest of the DNA sample, because within it we have our sasquatch body,hand, head,heart the lot! In code maybe but complete! Now what is needed is interpretation. I do not minimse the difficulties but I believe it is just a matter of time before this is resolved not left hanging in mid air, as it has been, for so long. There seems to be a lack of will within the scientific community to acheive this resolution! When it is done we will all wonder why it was not done earlier.
There has been an important exciting advance in DNA sourcing recently which I have not seen mentioned. This is the ability to get relatively good quality DNA from keratin in hair, not from the root but the actual hair itself. I guess potential bigfoot hair samples are not that uncommon. This leads to the possibility of population studies etc (as is being done with mammoths) tracking individuals and making some assumptions about how near sasquatch and similar relate to humans
It seems to me that with a lot more DNA results it will get rather difficult for the scientific establishment to deny the strength of the case for the physical reality of sasquatch and similar.
I think exciting times are at hand!!!
Norman Chilvers
I thought that while most everyone was in the cabin one member of the crew stayed outside walking around with a camera to see if he could get anything on film
I hear that the Monster Quest team is scheduled to return to Snelgrove. Still haven’t heard when. I’d be happy to go along and chase after anything that might throw rocks at them. Of course, they’ll be required to provide the beef jerky. 😉
Correct me if I’m wrong here, but wasn’t the board trap exposed to the elements over a 2-year period before the DNA testing was done?
Weren’t the samples handled by someone without any gloves on? To me, these things scream “contamination.”
Come to think of it, if the nails were such a problem in collecting the samples, why not get them from the wooden part of the trap? After all, you’d think that some blood would’ve spilled there.
I was under the impression that no usable DNA was found at all during the original test and that this “almost human” business happened after someone involved with the show took a crack at it. Some have likened this to “…a prosecuting attorney performing DNA analysis in [their] own office.”
As for the rock throwing, I’d suspect some crewmembers pulling a prank in order to spice up the program’s content before I suspected Bigfoot.
Some of you are commenting on the rock throwing incident at Chuck Mosbecks cabin at Snowgrove lake. It was said that this particular sasquatch DOES NOT like humans for some unknown reason. So going to the lake would keep most people a little weary. A team member was urinating off the porch when the first rock was thrown. He then threw a rock back into the forest to only have another rock thrown in his direction. this is when the others went into the cabin. One camera man stayed outside with night vision equiptment to investigate. I think this was a good approach to go about it this way. For one everyone is accounted for. You should remember that this lake is only accessible By float plane. The nearest town is two hundred miles away with only ten thousand people. I would be a little freaked out by knowing this, at a minimum.
Monsterquest took a total scientific approach to this investigation. The scientists involved were Kurt Nelson who is a micro biologist at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Jeff Meldrum who is a anthropologist at the Univ. of Idaho. Todd Disotell who is from NYU micro biology lab. Lynn Rogers who is a black bear expert from Univ. of Minnesota. I may have missed a few others. I think they want to get another base sample of DNA to compare to the sample of DNA that has only one nucleotide poly morphism which is shared in chimpanzie DNA. Then they would have two samples of DNA to confirm a new species existence.
I really enjoyed this new sasquatch program. I hope they follow through by going back to try to gather more evidence. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
If Uncle Hairy were trying to intimidate me by throwing rocks “like a bullet”, I think I’d head for the cabin too.
I saw an interview with one of the cameramen from the show on youtube.
He was talking about a large log being thrown against the side of the cabin, which had what looked like corrugated metal on the roof and sides.
I bet this made quite a racket in the still of the night.
The fear was still very apparent in this young man’s face
I suspect that most who say they wouldn’t be in the cabin should get a subscription to Internet Tough Guy Magazine…
In addition to my work researching Bigfoot, lake monsters, chupacabra, and other cryptids, I also investigate ghosts. The rock-throwing incident is strikingly similar to TV shows like “Ghost Hunters” where people in the dark get spooked and shout “Whuzzat!?” “Did you hear that?”
Come on, stick to the science.
I wonder why they didn’t set up camera traps around the cabin before leaving?
Mr. Coleman,
I have read many of your books, BIGFOOT!: The True Story of Apes in America, The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates, and have found them to be very interesting indeed. I have ordered your new book Mysterious America and am anxiously awaiting its arrival. I am however a little puzzled at your reaction to the monsterquest show. Are you upset at the way the DNA was collected for fear that the Manimal was injured? I also thought of the serious injury that must have occurred and the risk of infection it possibly imposed but I don’t think Mr. Meldrum set the trap. I would hope to think anyone seriously studying this phenomena would intentionally hurt or kill something so like ourselves. I would have liked to see a more long term study done. I do not know what you could possibly hope to see let alone study in a mere 4-5 days. I have to say it was one of the most interesting broadcasts investigating the existence of non-human primates in North America I have yet seen. What’s with the mohawk, scientist, skeptic guy, he needs to start producing results or give him the axe. I am hooked though and will be watching the Bigfoot episode on the 28th.
Mr. Coleman, like you, I have never had the pleasure of laying eyes on the giant but hope to someday. Keep searching….
I just downloaded the episode from itunes and watched it. I think they did a great job. It seems a little ironic, as I just spent the afternoon working on some DNA traps in the garage. The way I see it, having spent some time around Dr. Meldrum, I have to believe that it was not a fabricated piece, and that makes me very excited about the possibility of the DNA proving something with more detailed testing.
I would like to think that I may have went outside when the rocks were being thrown, to try to see something, but let’s be real. 200 miles from nowhere; big, angry, hairy biped with a sore foot and projectile throwing ability, hmmmmmmmm, maybe I’ll stay inside.
Doubtful the rock throwing was communication unless its to say get out.
Most seem to have forgotten the nails were put out to keep the creature away, not to collect hair and skin samples. The samples were two years old when collected.
It was a very interesting show. Thankfully they didnt go running head long into the woods. That would shurely chase anything off ruining any chance they had of seeing it. Havnt we learned anything from last seasons crypto series on Sci Fi where the investigators ran around in the dark looking for Iguanodons and Ropens. The quickest way to keep an unknown just that is to scare it off.
Hopefully what they do have here is a controlled invironment free of any outside interferance. A return would be an important step to check for repeat phenomena. Cameras should be set up for the small good weather window they do have there.
Would camera traps survive the cold of 8-9 months of bad weather?
Does anyone see the similarity with the 1920’s Ape Canyon reports?
Of course the question asked here was, what would the impact be on finding a body, not critiquing a tv show. My opinion is unfortunatly the only way to prove this is with a body. One brought back and autopsied at a major scientific center with news media filming it step by step. This would have to be done in such a way that there is no doubt about what is there and all methods of proving exactly what it is. Even then there would be some who wouldnt give in right away.
Bottom line is there may be a great opportunity here, It would be a shame if all this was not followed up on correctly. I hope any follow up doesnt turn into just another exploitation tv show, we’ve had our fill of these over the past few years. Please let this chance be handled well so any findings wont be tainted by the foolishness of the past.
Another thing is that even if the sasquatch WERE trying to communicate, the crew doesn’t know that. They are not necessarily going to calmly deduce that “If it really wanted to hit us, it could. It must be some sort of other gesture.” All the crew knows is that something unknown is out there throwing big rocks at them in a seemingly aggressive manner. I agree with Cryptidsrus that someone could be overcome with fear when facing a truly unknown and seemingly hostile entity, most probably not something they expected to encounter under those circumstances. It’s easy to say what you think you would do in that situation, but quite another to be in it, I’d imagine. I have no problem with the crew panicking a little and hiding in the cabin, and indeed I think it is a reasonable response to what they perceived to be a large, possibly angry and dangerous creature tossing stones. Also, as I said, I think if this was staged and the crew knew it, they would have likely put on a show and gone out to investigate. It just doesn’t make sense to me for them to fake the whole incident so that they could hide in the cabin. If this was not an actual sasquatch, then maybe someone was having some fun at their expense.
If it was a real incident, or thought to be real by the crew, they would do one of two things. They would go check out what is causing the disturbance or conversely hide in the cabin. If this was staged by all involved I think they would have definitely gone out to investigate to make the whole hoax worth while. This, plus the DNA samples collected lead me to believe there could be something to the whole incident.
First of all, Mystery_Man is correct–if this had been staged, it’s far more likely that the crew would have rushed into the woods to find the rock-thrower. The fact of the matter is that, if this thing exists, it would be, like virtually any wild animal, potentially dangerous; it’s not a benign humanoid (and we should always remember just how harmless and benign humans are).
Loren: I think that what you suggest in your note, implicitly arguing for a slow and thorough investigation of what’s going on here, is much more prudent and wise than rushing to any sure conclusions. I think that Dr. Meldrum and Dr. Nelson were quite right not to leak anything. There seems to be a great deal here in terms of the data collected that demands serious study, but rushing forward with conclusions (e.g., “The DNA will prove Bigfoot exists…”) is, at this point, really not productive.
The data now are quite fascinating; let’s see where things go from here.
Here we go ’round the mulberry bush…
Well, OK, at least folks are in the field where they should be, looking for actual animals rather than poring over 40-year-old film and footprints.
I will say one thing this blog has going for it: that picture at the top. Against hundreds of reports I’ve read that image would scan. Yep, that’s what a big male sasquatch looks like. Note the many dissimilarities to a mangy bear.
That was one of the best show on the big guy that I’ve seen, and an area that holds a lot of promise. There were so many tie ins. Many other shows have recovered samples, done DNA analysis, etc. But I do not recall any show where an investigation had all of those things together….DNA evidence from hair, tissue, and blood, rock throwing, and in a location where the nearest town is a 200 mile plane flight away. That “Welcome Mat” ended up really making the episode. When Dr. Meldrum outlined the drywall screws that appeared to have been stepped on, it showed the outline of about 3/4 of footprint that was something like 17 or 18 inches long (not exact on the size, but that’s what I recall). The cabin was broken into and an insurance investigator stated that the damage caused was not from a bear. The refrigerator was bolted to the wall, and it was ripped off. Same with the bathroom sink, knocked to the floor….and it was reported that the bathroom door was closed after it exited. They went on to say that the lake is only unfrozen during a few weeks of the year (when people use the cabin to go fishing)…and again it is a 200 mile flight from the nearest town. There were also reports of people that were standing at the sink and looked up and saw the big guy out the window. There were other people who stayed at the cabin that recorded sightings in the journal at the cabin…….Wow! Then there was the rock throwing at the end of the show. They threw one back, and the big guy threw a second one on the roof. The next day they went on the roof and found a rock. No way to prove if it was the exact same one, but it fit rather nicely in the hand of the guy that went up and got it.
I hope they are able to go back to that location for additional investigation. Dr. Meldrum is the right guy for the job!
I have only one comment… I wish I could have seen the show. Maybe it will be on again.
As for the rock throwing… If it has ever happened to you like it did to me, you would be scared out of your mind. I was and had no place to hide or run. I waited it out and then bolted out of the place I was at. I never equated the incident to a sasquatch until years later when I started reading other reports about it. Then it made perfect sense as I was the only person in the area at the time of the event and it bothered me that I couldn’t figure out who or what threw a very large rock with excellent accuracy right over my head.
Keep up the work folks. You’re on the right track.
Cheers
I guess schedules come before all else, kind of maddening. Maybe we don’t deserve to discover bigfoot. Out of thousands of square miles of remote habitat, far too much to ever explore, they find a small area that an unknown creature seems to be fixated upon (can’t beat that kind of luck), then have what appears to be a genuine ‘encounter’, yet must retreat back to civilization to do what, pay the phone and cable bill? Man, they couldn’t have stayed a couple more days? How far can a bigfoot chuck a rock anyway, 100 feet? So you have the potential discovery of the millennium 100 feet away from a group of 21st century men equipped with cameras. And they come away empty-handed. Chalk up another victory for the elusive bigfoot.
There is a small trailer here :
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=21324748
DWA- If we had a photo like that pic at the top, with the sas in that same position, I highly doubt anyone would ever possibly mistake it for a mangy bear. That is the benefit of clear photos. The debate might turn over to whether it’s a man in a suit, though. 🙂 What’s it gonna take I wonder? Good DNA samples would be a start, some sort of incontrovertible physical proof like that. It’s too bad the nail board samples seem to have been of such poor quality and contaminated to the point they were. I seems like a highly promising development to me if they can get a clean enough sample. The way it stands now, it looks like those DNA samples are not going to be accepted as proof by anyone, especially since one expert already said the samples were pretty much worthless. It comes back to that frustrating word- inconclusive. I am still optimistic that something could come of it though, and if it doesn’t we just keep on searching.
In the meantime, it would be nice to get a photo like that artist rendition at the top. Maybe we could debate it for 40 years as well. 🙂
This episode was alot better than the Champ episode.Hopefully the show will continue with quality episodes and subjects and not get cancelled.
First I would like to thank the TBRC for the time and effort they put into the conference. It was greatly appreciated.
As Ole Bub, stated Dr. Meldrum did spend a few minutes addressing the results from the DNA. As a scientist, that he and his fellow scientist will use caution. I anticipate further data in the future if and when it is available. As to the MQ presenting the crew as quaking in the cabin well I was not there. I did get the impression this made for good television and was shall we say not totally the truth.
As I read through the debate here of Dr. Meldrum and Kurt Nelson, I find several points interesting. I have a background in law enforcement. I wonder about the long term implications of most of the DNA indicating human markers. It could turn out very grim for someone out to harvest a body. The law is pretty straight forward about definitions of humans. There are also laws on maiming and stalking. I would advise using caution when researching these guys.
Human Beings Law & Legal Definition.
There are various definitions for a human being. Biologically, they are classified as hominids of the species Homo sapiens, which are a primate species of mammal with a highly developed brain. Humans have the highest brain to body mass ratio of all large animals. They have a life expectancy approaching 80 years old in wealthy nations, walk on two feet and have opposable thumbs. Skin color ranges from almost back to pale pinkish-white. Height and weight varies, depending on locality, historical factors, environmental, and cultural factors such as diet.
Human beings are characterized by the ability to speak. They have a high capacity for abstract thinking and are commonly thought to possess a spirit or soul which transcends the physical body. The spiritual aspect of human beings is often defined in terms of rituals and religion. Theories involving the definition of the beginning of human life, evolution, and creationism are hotly debated topics in the law.
http://definitions.uslegal.com/h/human-beings/
Homicide – A death resulting from the intentional use of force or power, threatened, or actual, against another person, group, or community with a preponderance of evidence to indicate that the use of force was intentional. It includes deaths where the suspect only intended to injure rather than kill, intentional discharge of a weapon, justifiable homicides where the person who commits the homicide is not a police officer, child abuse, and deaths that resulted from neglect by one person against another. Homicides do not include deaths from vehicular homicide unless there is evidence to prove that the force was intentional. Hunting accidents or deaths that take place in combat under declared wars are not included as homicides.
http://www.health.state.ok.us/program/Injury/Summary/OVDRS/background.htm
Once again Thank you Craig and the TBRC for a wonderful time in Jefferson.
More on DNA.
Sasquatch shock and awe missile attacks is on the face of it much more exciting than DNA analysis but nevertheless, there is excitement and hugh importance ,at least in my mind, in the new developments in sampling. The fact that DNA is now found within hair and not just in the root and the keratin enables it to be both well protected and preserved from contamination.
The work on DNA sampling was done by Penn state university and published in september last, which may be subsequent to the DNA testing mentioned above. This leads to opportunity for retesting where appropriate and confidence in the results as even old or battered samples are probaly ok.
Of course with large (or small) creatures shedding hair wherever they go, I am optomistic of wonderful further opportunities coming along for research on cryptids (and fossills especially mammoth).
What a cruel thing to do in setting out nail traps!! Are these “research hanger-ons” straight out of the 1800’s? These people had every need to cower because they knew their hidden traps of pain were out there waiting maim a sasquatch. Good thing for them it was small rocks and not boulders!
With all the technology and survival gear available today for any of those with sufficient resources to truly explore for evidence of sasquatch these people obviously have sufficient money but lack in moral ethics. I know that’s one of the only sasquatch documentary I will have no interest in watching!
john 5, it’s apparent that since you haven’t seen the program you have become a bit confused about the sequence of things. The nail boards were not set out as part of the research. They were set out a couple of years before, and only to dissuade whatever had been breaking into the cabin and destroying things. There seems to be a history of someone or something big and strong enough to tear up refrigerators doing this kind of thing more than once over several years.
The folks who came on the expedition for the show simply found tissue and blood traces on the nail board. They were old traces, not recent. Now, I’m not making any claims about the morality or lack thereof of using nailboards in any way. I’m just saying it wasn’t the researchers who set them out.
Thanks Ceroill for pointing that out. You are correct I did not see the show and was mistakenly under the impression the researchers had set them out.
I will reconsider the decision to not watch this documantary and now am curious as to its content however the nailboard method of discouraging a pest by maiming is still unacceptable in my humble opinion. There are many non-violent methods of discouragment for those who care enough to look for them. Others sadly become vengful and would rather harm the problem-causing critter.
As a certified fur-bearing mammal trapper we are taught to respect the animals to be harvested and ensure their quick and humane dispatch in traps set and to never create a trap set that would cause any undue stress and suffering to the animals. (N.B. – Even though fully licenced to trap for furs I have only live-trapped and released small mammals and mist-netted and released songbirds!)
tv shows can never prove if a cryptid is real or not because they might have trick cameras or somthing or it might be a hoax trying to trick them
I have to say when I watched this show I thought also about Ghost Hunters on SCI-FI when the rocks were thrown. Why are they not going to see what that is after all that’s what they came here for. On the ghost hunters show you can see alot of times they are scared yet when they seem something most of them run towards what they’ve seen they don’t cower in fear. They need people out there who aren’t so scared. Maybe not run towards it but at least go investigate it. At the very least try to find footprints. If you have a TV network with money you would think if something has attacked this cabin before more than once they would have had cameras set up all over the surrounding woods. Decent night vision cameras to. Ones that would get clear pictures of what was out there. They seemed like an underfunded expedition because they really didn’t expect to find anything. Also they were there for three days?!?! Come on! If it were me especially after the rock throwing incident I would NOT have left that day I would have said hey I’m not leaving after all that. It seems like this show just wants to capitalize on urban legends following the success of sci-fi’s ghost hunters to get people to watch but aren’t really commited to finding any of these creatures. If thats the case they won’t be on past their first season. If Ghost Hunters never showed anything that could be a ghost and they could explain away every single haunting they wouldn’t have made it past their first season either.
I have seen this episode a couple of times and find the behaviors of the scientists to be completely believable. Yes, they want to capture some sort of evidence if the creature exists but they have seen the supposed evidence of the destroyed cabin, the diary entry and then the rock throwing late at night. I think that most of us would be scared, too. With that said, I do have some comments: I was curious about the height of motion sensor cameras that were mounted to trees. They were shoulder height on humans. If the creature is 7-8 ft tall and passes close to the camera, you’re not going to get much of a picture, i.e. a hairy body trunk. Mounting them higher would give a better picture regardless of proximity of the subject. Second, the program mentions the nearest town was 200 mi and it had a pop of 10K. It seems odd to me that there are no other settlements anywhere close by and then, bam, a very large town of 10,000. No small settlements to provide a person who for some reason likes to scare people? For example, with all that daylight you may be able to grow some highly profitable reefer even in a short growing season but you don’t need a bunch of fishermen stumbling on your patch. Finally, are there any accounts of a bigfoot actually hurting someone?
I just watched the “Sasquatch Attack” episode of Monster Quest last night (Feb. 6th., 08). I guess it originally aired back in Nov. of 2007. I am facinated by the subject of Bigfoot/Sasquatch and have been for over 30 years since I was a kid. What I liked about this episode is probably what everyone else liked. A good ending. A very real possibility that there is something out there that we have yet to prove but have actually come closer to real hard evidence thanks to this show.
hat bothers me is certain parts of this show. Choosing to waste air time on the mohawked DNA expert from NYU (who MonsterQuest went back to twice!) who came up with zilch versus the physical evidence of the destroyed interior of the cabin. I think if we all are going to believe that #1. Bigfoot/Sasquatch exists or there is a very real possibility of it’s existence, then I also believe that the majority of us also believe that it’s a relatively intelligent being, much more so than, say a black bear.
So why is it that the exterior of the cabin wasn’t damaged at all and the interior was? At least it wasn’t mentioned that the exterior was damaged. It sure didn’t appear that the exterior sustained any real damage vs. the interior. To me, the interior damage all points to a black bear. I live in Colorado and have all my life and I have seen first hand what a black bear can do to a cabin. Yes, most bears are in hibernation from October to March but that doesn’t mean that they all stay in hibernation. I’ve witnessed black bears pilfering cabins and trash cans in the middle of December/January, and the damage looked very much like the interior of the cabin at Snel Grove. Just because the insulation of the refrigerator wasn’t messed with does not mean this wasn’t a black bear. In my experience, a hungry black bear generally couldn’t care less about the workings of a fridge vs. what the hell is in it, especially if it is starving and is looking for real food! Bears have a sense of smell 1000 times as good as a dog and a hungry black bear in the middle of winter ain’t gonna care about some insulation, unless that is all there is to eat. A lot of black bears don’t get the sustinance they need during the fall and basically have to continue pilfering during the dead of winter. I have seen it first hand!! Now if we all are going to believe that there is a North American ape out there that is 8 feet tall and weighs upwards of 6-700 lbs, I also think that we are also going to give it superior intelligence to a black bear. If this Sasquatch in Snel Grove does not like humans or human encroachment on it’s “turf” why just destroy the interior of the cabin?!
Those 4×4 posts holding up the “patio” of the cabin would make easy targets to a (BIG) superior being enraged that humans invaded his territory every summer, or better yet, a big intelligent animal who just stepped on a bed of screws! A big, intelligent animal like, say a sasquatch would have felt extreme pain and then pure rage and would have taken it out on the exterior of the cabin as well. If it can throw rocks, then IMO it has the ability to know that if it wants to destroy the inner workings of a human dwelling it would destroy the whole damn thing!
Just my 2 cents.
I am a firm believer in the possibility of the existence of Bigfoot. I have been a believer since I was very young. There are too many pieces of evidence coupled with eyewitness testimony spanning decades for there not to be some truth, in my opinion.
That being said, I am not one to sit around and talk. I believe in doing. So, two of my friends and I just returned from a 6 day fishing trip to Snelgrove Lake in Ontario where we spent 5 nights at the infamous cabin. We decided to actually get off our butts and do our own investigation. Here are our thoughts:
1. Monsterquest is a TV show and as such, they must sell a product. So, we went up there to fish and test their claims.
2. We could not find any visible evidence on the nails, but we did find where the Monsterquest scientists drew the footprint on the board. To be fair, the board was out in the rain for many months by the time we got to it…so there is no way anything would be left on those nails. They were completely rusted. FYI, there are 400,000 lakes in Ontario and that makes for some strange weather patterns. It rains a lot and the winds constantly shift as High and Low pressure systems jostle about.
3. We read through the two journals in the cabin dating back to 1994. We could not find any entries referring to anything like a Sasquatch. In the TV show they mentioned that they found an entry. We could not find that entry. I am not saying that the show made it up….all I am saying is that if the entry they referred to is in the journals…we must have missed it.
4. Our wood knocking did not draw in a Sasquatch. Up there it is deathly quiet at night when there is no wind. There are no crickets or tree frogs or other such creatures that normally make noise at night. When it is calm, you can hear a pin drop. It is freaky quiet. The sun goes down very late and the moon comes out for about 3 hours and then sets across the horizon roughly N. When it is dark…it is very dark….REALLY DARK. We made enough noise during our trip that anything out there could have heard us for many miles. When you yell, the echo goes on and on. At night we heard nothing other than the occasional loon and wolves. Although one night my friend and I both heard something about 20 yards off towards the wood shed that sounded like something was stalking us. I cannot explain the sensation….but he felt it too…and my friend is quite the pragmatist and non-believer. My gut is that it was a cougar…but we didn’t stay outside to find out…and I have nothing to substantiate my gut feelings. Whatever it was, it scared us enough that we didn’t want to find out.
5. We set up game cams about 50 yards behind the cabin…in the woods where the Monsterquest crew said something had thrown rocks at them. We caught nothing on our game cams. In fact, we saw very little animal life up there…a moose and her calf, a seagull attacking a bald eagle, some otters, some frogs, some loons and the fish we caught. In fact, we thought it was incredibly weird that we did not see any squirrels or rabbits or chipmunks. And we definitely didn’t see an grouse. But we know that grouse is up there.
6. Many journal entries in the cabin mentioned the fact that Black Bears had broken in the cabin while the campers were out on the lake fishing. We made sure to always clean up after cooking and to bring in all pots, plates, etc. to wash after we were finished cooking. We also dumped all grease inside and made sure to keep all foodstuff trash inside as well to minimize unexpected encounters with wild animals.
7. There are wolves, coyotes, black bear, caribou, moose and cougar up in that part of the country. Nevermind Sasquatch, there are plenty of things that go bump in the night that, if you walk outside at 3am to relieve yourself, you do not want to find face to face unexpectedly. It is DARK up there at night. I do not think most people realize how incredibly dark it is up there. It is very hard to see without the use of a flashlight, and even then, it is really dark outside the light’s range…even moreso when your eyes have been exposed to white light. And because it is so incredibly quiet…any sound gets your imagination going.
8. Our cooking, especially our morning ritual of cooking bacon on the propane grill-pan, could easily have brought in bear, cougar, wolves or coyotes…and maybe even a Sasquatch. Fortunately, we never found any evidence of anything except for one nerf football sized and shaped dookie behind the outhouse, outback towards the woods. We think that either a Moose or Caribou left that one. But if it did so at night…we never heard it.
9. The woods up there are dangerous…period. It is mostly compost made from the fallen pines, covered by moss and fungus. The Moss is thick and spongy and we tested out walking about 200 yards from the cabin out back. My one friend, who is very athletic, slipped and fell in the daytime. They are the kind of woods where you will disappear, especially at night.
10. If the crew from Monsterquest are telling the truth and something was throwing rocks at them from the woods…all I can say is that I know for certain that it could not be another human being. NO WAY IN HELL COULD IT BE ANOTHER HUMAN BEING. The lake is roughly 200 miles from the nearest town. The only way in is via float plane. The woods are thick, hard to maneuver and there are animals that can cause harm. For someone to try to play a prank on the Monsterquest team, they would have had to have been camping out for days prior to the Monsterquest team’s arrival. NO FREAKING WAY. This is not the sort of place where you are going to risk getting hurt just to play a prank on someone. It is dangerous up there and you are on your own. If something were to happen, all you have is your First Aid kit and a Satellite phone. And they aren’t coming to get you until the sun comes up…because you cannot land the plane on the lake at night….it is full of granite rocks jutting up in many places. The whole area is littered with granite boulders.
11. We could not explain the rock throwing. The cabin has metal sheeting on the sides and roof and a rock thrown against it will go “bang” very loudly. The reason the Monsterquest team was cowering (as one poster put it) is because when you are the only humans around for 200 miles, and you are stuck on a lake where the only place you can walk-about is roughly 1/2 an acre…and you are on a pennisula of sorts with woods behind you and the lake in front of you…and your only way of getting out of there is to get in the boats, launch them and go out on the lake in the pitch black……you start to worry a little bit. It makes you get in touch with that primitive man who used to sit around fires in the caves while the big nasties circled the campfire. When you have to get up at 3am to take a leak, and you are by yourself and you use your peripheral vision to look outside before you walk out there…knowing full-well that there is that slight possibility that there is a cougar or bear hanging about….you relieve yourself quickly. If the Monsterquest crew is telling the truth…then take that base fear and amplify it ten-fold as a result of something throwing rocks at you, when you know that nothing in the woods can throw rocks. And then take that thought to the next level that even if you don’t think it is a Sasquatch….then that’s probably even worse….it could be some crazy guy out there messing with you. And if some human is out there throwing rocks…then he must be a truly insane person to be out in THOSE WOODS AT NIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE THROWING ROCKS AT YOUR CABIN. THAT’S SOME SCARY STUFF AND THERE ISN’T A PERSON ALIVE WHOSE HAIR WOULDN’T TURN WHITE. There is no 911, not a soul to call for help…and you DO NOT HAVE A GUN.
12. We believe that the animal that broke into the cabin on the Monsterquest show was a black bear. In the journals, there are too many references to black bears breaking into the cabin for us to conclude otherwise. It has happened time and again, and I find it interesting that Monsterquest did not make mention of these entries. The reason for the boards with nails is to prevent the bears from getting in.
13. Monsterquest returned to the cabin a week after we left…so it will be interesting to see what they come up with this time. Who knows, maybe all of our efforts will pay off for them, but we did not find any evidence of Sasquatch…unfortunately. But, we did have a nice time fishing and relaxing in one of the most beautiful, albeit, remote locations in North America. I recommend it to anyone who needs time to get away from it all….but just remember, someone may be watching you…at least that’s what it says on the refrigerator underneath the Sasquatch photo.
14. We cannot explain what could have thrown rocks at the crew…but I can understand why they were so incredibly fearful. Only an insane person would trek a vast expanse of a wilderness to play a prank. And, one more thing, there was one reference in the journal that mentioned that some campers had heard gun shots and wrote in the journal something like, “Heard gunshots, who else is up here with us?!!!” Maybe there is a group of psychos living up there? Who knows….
A couple more comments:
15. The forests up there are so dense that if something doesn’t want to be seen, then it won’t be seen. The Moose with her calf that we saw was on the water’s edge on the SW side of the lake. As soon as we came around the bend in the boat, she and her calf took three or four steps and were gone. They simply disappeared into the the bush. We shut down the motor and we could hear them walking in the woods, but we could not see them…and we were probaby 30 yards away. For anyone who has never seen a Moose up close….THEY ARE HUGE. So, for a Moose to disappear that quickly in the bush near a water’s edge on a small finger landing on a lake, gives you an idea of how easy it is for large creatures to disappear up there in those remote woods. The lake, itself, is enormous….this isn’t your typical little pond or lake. I do not know the exact dimensions of the lake…but it has multiple fingers that go on and on…and there are small waterways that connect to other lakes…which then go on and on and connect to other lakes and so on. To get from one lake to the next, you must portage about 1/4 mile to most other lakes. There are a lot of bugs in those woods and they are dense. There are 400,000 lakes in Ontario…and that is why there aren’t any towns for miles around….the Ministry of Natural Resources owns all this sort of land and only very few people are leased the right to use these lakes for commercial purposes such as renting out a cabin for fly-in fishing trips. When you fly over this region your realize just how expansive it really is. There are so many lakes close to major cities that the 25 Million Canadians will never run out of lakefront to build on close to home…so there is no need for cities to crop up out in the BUSH, as they call it. Everyone up there we spoke with said pretty much the same thing, that they do not believe that Sasquatch exists any longer, but that it probably did sometime in the past and if it still did exist, the BUSH would be the place where it could survive without ever being seen.
16. There are arguments that because no one has found the remains of a Sasquatch that it must not exist. The fact is that when something dies up there….it is immediately preyed upon by the weather, bugs, fungus…predators…etc. A carcass would not last more than two weeks up there…and given the fact that very few people ever go up there…and only three months of the year when it isn’t frozen over….you can understand why no one ever finds any remains of anything…bear, cougar, moose…whatever.
17. I mentioned in my comment #14 that someone in the past had made mention of hearing gunshots while staying at Snelgrove lake. What I forgot to mention was that the owner of the Snelgrove cabin also owns a cabin at a nearby lake called Uno…which, if I remember correctly, is roughly 15 miles away from the Snelgrove cabin. Lake Uno is similar to Snelgrove in that it is remote and accessible only by float plane. And like I mentioned in my comment #4 that sound travels incredibly far up there…so it is very possible that someone staying at Uno could have brought along a gun and was shooting it. If they had, I’m pretty convinced that you would hear those gunshots at Snelgrove. I honestly doubt that there are people living up there in the middle of nowhere in the woods. Sound travels far up there.
18. We brought along nightvision goggles as well and, even so, it is so dark up there that the 1st generation binoculars we brought were pretty much useless. When the moon is out, then you can see much better obviously. But I can honestly say that I have never been anywhere that was that dark and quiet at night. Clumsy animals or deliberate walking can be heard…which is why we had cause for alarm when we heard heavy stealthy walking as I mentioned in my comment #4.
I really think the bigfoot is real. Of course so do many others but I was skeptical before. I was more believing it could be possible but not sure without more proof. Since the show Destination Truth found DNA that was human and ape in Tibet (I believe that is where), and Monster Quest found DNA here in the U.S. I have become a solid believer. I believe there are different types of these creatures like the Skunk Ape, because it is described as being smaller and a different colour, and the one or multiple ones in Tibet are accustomed to a different climate so I believe they, like people, are the same, but slightly different depending on their habitat. From the DNA results it seems they are mostly human with a little bit of ape DNA. I think this also attributes to the fact that they each might look a little different. Like humans even people of the same race in the same country look different, so people may be seeing different ones and that is why drawings of them all come out a little different (besides the fact that people have different perspectives, memory, visual ambiguity, etc.). But I believe it has been so hard to catch a clear picture of it because it knows what trap cams look like and maybe they can even smell that humans have been all over the place where people keep setting up little decoy spots to catch evidence and that is why many people are seeing them by accident or with hand-held cameras when they accidentally come across them. I hope more DNA evidence from the same areas are found so they can have comparable data.